Return-Path: engineering-request Return-Path: jeffrey@cygnus.com Received: from rtl.cygnus.com (rtl.cygnus.com [140.174.1.2]) by cygnus.com (8.6.9/8.6.9) with ESMTP id XAA06778 for ; Thu, 6 Oct 1994 23:00:37 -0700 From: Jeffrey Osier Received: (jeffrey@localhost) by rtl.cygnus.com (8.6.9/8.6.4) id XAA20484 for engnews-distrib; Thu, 6 Oct 1994 23:00:36 -0700 Date: Thu, 6 Oct 1994 23:00:36 -0700 Message-Id: <199410070600.XAA20484@rtl.cygnus.com> To: engnews-distrib@cygnus.com Subject: Inside Cygnus Engineering - Vol 3 #9 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Vol 3 No 9 INSIDE CYGNUS ENGINEERING September 1994 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Inside Cygnus Engineering (ICE) is published monthly for customers of Cygnus Support. Our objective is to provide a relevant but informal summary of news and ongoing activities. Please send all comments, suggestions, and subscription requests to engnews@cygnus.com. TABLE OF CONTENTS ----------------- PRODUCTS AND RELEASES: . CNS update . Emacs 19 now available . Cygnus Support library releases NEW AND ONGOING DEVELOPMENTS: . G++ update . VxWorks update . Future MIPS target changes . New math library SUPPORT ACTIVITIES: . Software Maintenance Status . Customer Satisfaction Survey OTHER ITEMS: . See you at the show . Survey: OSF Versions PRODUCTS AND RELEASES --------------------- 1. CNS Update We've been working hard on our Cygnus Network Security (CNS) offering for the past few months, and the work is beginning to pay off. CNS is based on MIT Kerberos, a network security product which uses cryptography to prove a user's identity to a machine across the Internet (e.g. for logging in to a remote machine) without revealing the user's password to potential wiretappers. Optionally, all information crossing the net can also be encrypted, using DES for privacy. * Kerberos V4 for microcomputers Cygnus has ported Kerberos version 4 to both MS-Windows and the Apple Macintosh. These ports, and our previously supported Unix ports on SPARC SunOS 4, SPARC Solaris 2, HP700, Sun 3, and DECstation, are all built from a common source tree. The resulting software continues to be freely available, like all Cygnus products. Both ports include a version of NCSA Telnet which performs automatic kerberos authentication, allowing users to log-in to Unix machines that run a Kerberized telnet server. Both ports also provide a small library that can be linked with your applications to provide source code compatability across Unix, Mac, and MS-Windows. The new ports are currently `author-tested', and will be productized and released for general use within the next few months. Please contact your Cygnus sales representative (or network-security@cygnus.com) if you would like to test this software at your site. * Kerberos V4 for MS-Windows Cygnus has ported Kerberos version 4 to MS-Windows. This port includes support for the krb, des, kadm and kstream libraries, implemented using Dynamic Link Libraries. It has been tested with a variety of WinSock libraries, including Frontier Technologies, Netmange Chameleon, Microsoft LAN Workplace for DOS, and FTP Software's PC/TCP. MS-DOS is not supported. A graphical client program allows the user to get a ticket, clear the ticket cache and change a password. It maintains a continuous display of the ticket cache. Both visual and audio alerts can occur when tickets get close to expiration. * Kerberos V4 for Macintosh This port includes support for the krb and des libraries, implemented as a device driver under System 7. It uses MacTCP for communication with the network. A graphical control panel allows the user to get a ticket, configure the system, display the current set of tickets, clear the ticket cache, and change their password. 2. Emacs 19 Now Available Emacs 19 development began in late 1988. Nearly five years later, the first beta release, version 19.1, was available via ftp from the Free Software Foundation. Although Emacs 19 is still in beta release, user experience at Cygnus Support and across the Internet has convinced us that we should now offer commercial support for Emacs 19.27. Functionality improvements are most visible in the user-interface: under X Windows, there is support for multiple windows, fonts and typefaces, as well as menus, scrollbars, mouse-sensitive regions, and a generally superior integration with X11 desktops. There are structural improvements (such as the ability to return allocated memory back to the operating system when buffers are killed), as well as user-visible changes at the Emacs LISP and key-binding levels. The additional memory requirements of Emacs 19 make it feel slower than Emacs 18 on workstations which are memory-poor, but on fast machines Emacs 19 and Emacs 18 resource requirements are equally inconsequential. User-visible changes (such as new key bindings for some operations or new entry points for LISP functions) may make the use of Emacs 19 awkward at first, but the transition is not too difficult. We currently support this version of Emacs on the following platforms: platform OS Sun4 SunOS 4.1.3 Sun4 Solaris 2.3 IBM RS6000 AIX 2.3 HP 9000/700 HPUX 9.01 SGI Iris Irix 4.0.5 We will be adding support for other platforms if there is sufficient interest. We advise all interested users to examine the NEWS file (distributed with Emacs 19, and available at ftp.cygnus.com:/pub/NEWS) to get a better feel for what Emacs 19 has to offer. Please contact Cygnus Support if you are interested in Emacs 19 support. 3. Cygnus Support Library Releases Cygnus Support has released our support libraries for embedded systems to the FSF cross-gcc mailing list. (The libraries are included for cross-development systems from Cygnus Support.) The Cygnus C Support Library, LIBC, and the Cygnus C Math Library, LIBM, are included in the release. NEW AND ONGOING DEVELOPMENTS ---------------------------- 1. G++ Update We are currently working on finishing support for exception handling and RTTI (Run-Time Type Identification) for G++. Work is also progressing on support for shared libraries for G++ on the following platforms: platform OS Sun4 SunOS 4.1.3 Sun4 Solaris 2.3 IBM RS6000 AIX 2.3 HP 9000/700 HPUX 9.01 Intel x86 Unixware (System V, r4.2) DEC Alpha OSF1 2. VxWorks Update We are working on expanding our offering for VxWorks as an embedded real-time operating system, to include support for VxWorks 5.1 on the Intel 960. This support will be available by mid-January for our progressive-95q1 release. 3. Future MIPS Target Changes There are currently several different MIPS targets which must be specified at configuration time to the compiler (i.e., before it is installed). We are currently working with IDT to create a single unified MIPS front-end, with command line switches to alter behaviors such as endianness and chip architecture. 4. New Math Library We have augmented the Cygnus Support C Math Library, LIBM, to include David M. Gay's recent math library work, known as fdlibm. This new work will be available in our upcoming progressive-95q1 release in January. SUPPORT ACTIVITIES ------------------- In addition to new development, a significant part of our engineering resources is devoted to answering questions, fixing problems in the GNU software, and providing a range of support services to our customers. 1. Software maintenance status The following table shows the maintenance statistics for the last six weeks. We continue to need your help: please let us know when you agree that a problem has been fixed so that we can move it from a "feedback" state to a "closed" state. # # # # # # Date Open Analzd Fdback Closed Suspnd Total ------------------------------------------------------------ 08/24/94 396 213 853 3,646 154 5,262 10/05/94 394 204 807 4,173 162 5,740 ------------------------------------------------------------ Change -2 -9 -46 +527 +8 +478 2. Customer Satisfaction Survey Cygnus Support has started a process to survey its customers on a regular basis to understand how Cygnus is doing and to solicit any product and service suggestions. Cygnus sent the first of these surveys about six weeks ago; we have already received much valuable feedback and product and service suggestions (in particular, lots of good suggestions for the GDB GUI). If you have received the survey but have not yet completed it, please do so before October 21 to qualify for a drawing for one of ten free T-shirts. If you did not receive a survey but would like to give Cygnus some feedback, please drop a line to Terri Thatcher at terri@cygnus.com or call at +1 415 903 1414. OTHER ITEMS ----------- 1. See you at the show David Henkel-Wallace, one of our founders, will be giving the keynote speech at the Computer Security Convention in Washington, DC, in November. The talk is entitled "Mainframe & Network Security: Aren't They The Same Thing?". 2. Survey: OSF Versions We value your suggestions, and would like your response to the following question. We will publish summaries of answers of general interest in a future issue. Reply to engnews@cygnus.com, or call +1 415 903 1401. Our upcoming progressive-94q4 release includes support for the DEC Alpha running OSF version 1.3. Would it be useful to you for us to expand this support in the near future to include support for OSF versions 2 or 3? --------------------------------------------------------------------- Cygnus Support 1937 Landings Drive 48 Grove Street Mountain View, CA 94043 Somerville, MA 02144 +1 415 903 1400 voice +1 617 629 3000 voice +1 415 903 0122 fax +1 617 629 3010 fax ---------------------------------------------------------------------